Facts of the Case

This writ petition, W.P.(C) No. 5191 of 2023, was filed by Sri Smruti Ranjan Mohanty against the Commissioner of GST, Odisha and others, before the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack. The petitioner was represented by Mr. Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, Advocate, and the state GST Department by Mr. Sunil Mishra, Standing Counsel, with Additional Standing Counsel. The matter was heard through hybrid mode by the same Division Bench of the Acting Chief Justice Dr. B. R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman that decided the connected batch of writ petitions. By order dated 14.11.2023, the Court disposed of the petition strictly "in terms of" the common order passed on 6 November 2023 in W.P.(C) No. 6684 of 2023 and Batch (M/s. Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST, Cuttack and others) — the same lead matter to which a companion petition, W.P.(C) No. 17543 of 2023 (Sushama Electricals Works), was also tagged four days later. As with that companion order, no independent facts, impugned notice, or grounds of challenge specific to Sri Mohanty are set out in the text of this disposal; the operative substance lies entirely in the parent batch GST judgment.

Issues Involved

  1. Whether Sri Smruti Ranjan Mohanty's grievance against the Commissioner of GST, Odisha fell within the scope of the common order passed in the Pravat Kumar Choudhury batch of writ petitions.
  2. Whether a separate hearing on the merits of this petitioner's specific facts was required, given that the batch order had already been pronounced.

Petitioner's Arguments

  • Counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, appeared and, on the record available, did not press for separate adjudication, consistent with the case being treated as covered by the batch decision.
  • The petitioner's grievance is presumed, from the batch tagging, to mirror the common issue already ventilated and decided in the lead case, W.P.(C) No. 6684 of 2023.

Respondent's Arguments

  • Standing Counsel for the CT & GST Department, Mr. Sunil Mishra along with Additional Standing Counsel, appeared for the Commissioner of GST, Odisha and other opposite parties, but no independently recorded submissions appear in this short order.
  • The Department did not resist disposal of the petition on the basis of the common order already rendered in the batch.

Court Order/Findings

  • The Court disposed of the writ petition "in terms of" the common order dated 6 November 2023 passed in W.P.(C) No. 6684 of 2023 and Batch of Writ Petitions (M/s. Pravat Kumar Choudhury and others v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST, Cuttack and others), without independently restating facts or reasoning.
  • The ratio governing this petitioner's outcome is, again, the ratio of the parent batch order, not any reasoning recorded in this two-paragraph disposal.
  • No separate liberty or direction specific to this petitioner is recorded.

Important Clarification

A short order disposing of a petition "in terms of" a named batch judgment is a signal, not a self-contained precedent. Practitioners tracking outcomes for CT & GST assessees in Odisha should pull the lead order — here, Pravat Kumar Choudhury v. Additional State Tax Officer, CT & GST — to understand what relief the batch actually secured, since companion orders such as this one contribute no independent reasoning of their own.

Sections Involved

  • Odisha Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 – the dual GST statutes administered by the Commissioner of GST/CT & GST, Odisha, under which the underlying (unstated) grievance presumably arose.
  • Batch/common-order disposal practice of the Orissa High Court – the same procedural device used to dispose of a cluster of writ petitions raising a shared grievance against CT & GST authorities without repeating reasoning in each order.

Decision – In Favour of

As with the companion batch order discussed above, this disposal records no independent finding for or against the petitioner. It is a purely procedural tagging to the Pravat Kumar Choudhury common order, and the actual outcome for Sri Mohanty tracks whatever relief that lead judgment granted, which is not reproduced in this text.

Related Case Laws

No directly on-point case notes are currently published on this site.

Case Details

  • Court: High Court of Orissa at Cuttack
  • Case No.: W.P.(C) No. 5191 of 2023
  • CNR: Not available on record
  • Coram: Acting Chief Justice Dr. B. R. Sarangi and Justice Murahari Sri Raman
  • Decision Date: 14 November 2023
  • Disposal Nature: Disposed of in terms of common order (batch GST matter)

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